Monkeys Fish The Moon Analysis

A Da’s Monkeys Fish the Moon (1980) demonstrates the change in Chinese animation at the end of the Cultural Revolution. The film drives the popular technique of cut-paper in animation forward. On first glance, this film looks as nothing more than as a cutesy film with bumbling monkeys trying to catch a moon. However, the underlying context of the film shows a different story. Monkeys Fish the Moon uses the monkeys’ dynamics and background landscape to show that the Chinese population’s sentiments toward Mao’s communism were that of failure.
On the surface, it seems that through all the monkeys working together to capture the moon that communism is represented, but there is a latent power dynamic between the monkeys. At the start of the film, a blue monkey encourages all the other monkeys to retrieve the moon through working together, establishing a de facto leadership role. This could be symbolic of the takeover of China by Mao that was inherently good, but in the days of the Cultural Revolution was more …show more content…
The lack of Chinese elements in the landscape or background music in this film may signal the uncertainty surround Chinese identity following the Cultural Revolution. As A Da originally created the film of the monkeys’ dance around a peasant harvest dance he witnessed during the Cultural revolution, the significance of Chinese culture is incorporated into the film. However, the music that accompanies the entire film does not sound distinctly Chinese, which undermined Mao’s need for an outward display of nationalism in art. In addition, the landscape of the film is of without any distinct Chinese elements and instead, shows a colorful forest. In the underwhelming display of Chinese elements in the film, the strong nationalistic image Mao sought from the arts was